The wonder years: A profile of Madhav Chavan

An idea took shape in the slums of Mumbai in the early nineties and went on to become a peoples’ movement to address the problem of providing quality education for all of India’s children. This piece profiles Dr. Madhav Chavan, the man who provided the dynamic vision for and creative leadership of that mission/movement. Dr. Chavan combined the wisdom of an ancient Chinese philosopher and lessons from the fast-food restaurant model to develop innovations in education that are enabling children and youth to learn. His unwavering focus on the human values behind the big numbers, as well as his celebration of the joy and wonder at the heart of all learning, are a large part of the educational story that is unfolding in faraway villages in India and providing a trigger for social change. This article is an attempt to present his contributions to education innovation in India.     

Canada-India nuclear cooperation

There is probably no more dramatic an example of a developing country acquiring an industrial capability demanding the highest levels of technological and managerial skills, than that of the Indian nuclear industry. With the detonation of a nuclear device by India, much concern has been expressed that this is a case of nuclear proliferation resulting from an aid programme of a western state (Canada).This study demonstrates that rather than an aid programme, Canadian/Indian nuclear cooperation has been mutually beneficial to both countries' industries. In fact, India was a full risk-sharing partner in the development of the CANDU technology. It is also shown that there were no agreements with Canada broken by the Indian Government and that the detonation of the device was not a consequence of the links between the two programmes. Differences between the structures of the Canadian and Indian nuclear industries and the implications of these differences to broader national policies are discussed.The paper offers a basic criteria for the determination of the ‘appropriateness’ of a technology which, if applied to commercial nuclear power generating reactors, would result in a very gradual proliferation of this technology. In discussing the process of technology transfer, the paper identifies an optimal relative level of development between the industries of the two nations concerned. This relationship suggests that the most likely pattern of transfer in the future will be between LDCs that wish a new technological capability and other LDCs that have already acquired a certain level of competence.